Page 50 of The Moments You Were Mine

“Give us two seconds to finish up, Ducky, and we’ll go with you.”

“I need air. I’ll see you down at the main house.”

As she stepped outside, I swore under my breath and jogged after her. I swung the door open in time to see her sink onto the bottom step of the porch, shoulders shuddering.

I looked back inside and saw Theo eyeing the sandwich she’d slid toward me. “Go ahead, bud. You can eat that one. Then go use the restroom, wash up, and come on out.”

He smiled and dug in. I left the door open so I’d hear him if he needed me and joined Fallon on the step.

I shoved my shoulder into hers. “Talk.”

“Why are you here, Parker? Don’t you have enough on your plate?” Her eyes were pained. I knew that look. It was the one she got whenever she talked about being an obligation to her family rather than being someone they wanted and loved.

“Do you even have to ask?” I growled.

“You don’t owe me anything!” Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes flashed. She was always stunning but even more so riled up with passion raging through her.

When I didn’t say anything, her tone softened. “You didn’t fail me by walking away that day in Willow Creek. What happened with Uncle Adam and Theresa would have still happened if you were there. Worse, they would have shot you as soon as they walked into the bar. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if that had happened. I won’t let anything happen to you now either. I don’t want you here. Go take care of Theo.”

Having Theo with me was a problem, but I’d figure it out just as I’d figured out everything with him in the last month.

I was deadly serious when I said, “I’m not leaving.”

“I don’t need a bodyguard.”

“Too bad. You got one.”

She grunted out a frustrated, inarticulate objection before saying, “You’re not my boss, Frogman. You can’t issue a command and expect me to follow it. I don’t have to let you stay. Go home.”

Her words hit me low and fierce in the groin because I wanted to give her commands that had nothing to do with whatever the hell was going on at the ranch. I wanted to demand she climax just before I dove over the edge myself.

That singular thought was what would damn me to hell for the rest of my life.

I leaned into her space more. “You really think you don’t need protection? Let’s recap exactly why you do, shall we? First, the man you sent to prison for eighteen months is out and pissed and cozying up to your loser boyfriend, who attempted to set you up for a drug rap you escaped by the hair on your chin. You’ve had two cows mutilated, one with a clear message saying you’d pay. Your tractor tire was sabotaged, and now you’ve had a building burn down. If anyone needs to leave, it’s you while you let the authorities do their job. So why the hell are you still here?”

Fury swept through those golden eyes. “No one is going to send me scurrying from my ranch with my tail between my legs.”

And that was what scared me more than anything in my life ever had. The thought of her standing there, hands on her hips, defiant chin thrust in the air, while someone came at her with a knife. Or a damn gun.

“This is my land, Parker.Mine. No one is going to steal it from me or scare me into running. I don’t care how many explosives they leave, how many tires they cut, or how many condoms they poke holes in—”

Her little rant cut off abruptly, and she clamped her lips shut.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Condoms? Explosives?” Confusion leaked into every syllable as I realized I was missing more than one thread of this conversation.

She moved, pacing in front of me. “Beckett, the firefighter who was with Kurt and me when you arrived, showed us some kind of detonator he found in the cabin’s wreckage. Whoever placed it there didn’t care that they might have hurt someone…” She inhaled sharply. “Killed someone.” She rubbed two fingers of her right hand over the thumb on the left. A sure sign she was tempted to chew on the nail like she had as a little girl. “It could have been your dad in there this morning, or you and Theo…if you’d been a day earlier, or the bomb had been set a day later…”

She clutched her stomach and whipped away from me. Her shoulders shuddered again. I hated seeing her like this. The last time I’d seen her this upset had been that night at the beach when she’d saved Celia Turner’s life.

I stood up and did the one thing I knew I shouldn’t but couldn’t stop myself from doing anyway. I put my arms around her, pulling her into my chest. I rested my chin on the top of her head and tightened my arms when she struggled. After a second, she went limp, leaning into me and letting me hold her up the way she rarely let anyone.

“No one has been hurt yet,” I told her softly. “We have time to stop this from getting worse.”

“The cabin was destroyed.” Her voice broke, and she caught a sob before she let it out. “It was the one place on the ranch that Dad loved.”

“This isn’t your fault,” I said, hoping to soothe her.

She fought her way out of my arms and turned to face me. “It’s mine to protect, Parker. Spence left it to me, and I walked away from it for years so I could, what? Play surfer? College girl? Let a man into my life who only wanted me for my money?” Every word was spoken with such self-loathing that it tore at me.